Demonization, a weakness that France Insoumise would like to transform into strength

On May 8, Jean-Luc Mélenchon filed a complaint. On the same day, lawyer Alain Jakubowicz, former president of the Licra (French Socialist Party), dared to compare him to former Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels after being questioned about the recent release of the investigative book La Meute (The Pack ).

The book, written by journalists Charlotte Belaïch and Olivier Pérou, reveals the "violence" and "toxicity" of certain leaders and activists within La France Insoumise (LFI), the leader first and foremost. The absurd analogy with Nazism speaks to the degree of hatred that LFI arouses on certain television sets.

Several days later, the leader of the right-wing deputies (LR), Laurent Wauquiez , declared that the Mélenchonist party "is the primary political danger in France today" - the same person is behind a parliamentary commission of inquiry intended to shed light on "the links between the rebels and the Islamists" . The Macronists, for their part, also participated in excommunicating LFI from the "republican arc".

" Anti-Semitic " , "Islamo-leftist" , "anti-republican" , "pro-Hamas", "factious drift" ... In a general context of denigration of progressive forces, thrown into the caricatured basket of "wokism", France Insoumise is now demonized daily, while the National Rally takes the opposite path .

Such a reversal of values ​​is dangerous for public debate. Is it the media's fault? That would be a bit short. Alain Jakubowicz's insulting outburst should not make us forget that Jean-Luc Mélenchon himself has indulged in dubious analogies: here, summoning Eichmann to criticize the director of the University of Lille , there, approving a comparison between the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel and his collaborator Doriot . Like a symbol of the relationship that the rebellious leader has with his own demonization. Often attacked in a fallacious manner by the liberal media, he also willingly offers himself the stick to be beaten by multiplying controversies. Even theorizing them as a weapon.

"The more we are beaten up, the more votes we gain," Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his entourage like to say ironically, citing his results in the presidential elections: in three elections, the rebel has done nothing but gain votes, despite the media hype against him.

"The hatred of the capital's media is our medal," he declared back in 2018. "When a mainstream media system that is hated by most people attacks us as one, it tends to prove that we are right," assures LFI MP Antoine Léaument , former head of digital communications for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, today. "I see that in the political life of the country, we are central. There is not a day that goes by when we are not talked about."

An analysis that is not shared by certain deputies within the rebellious group, uncomfortable with the accumulation of controversies ( poster with the image of Cyril Hanouna , aggressive tone used against a journalist, etc.) or simply worried about the damage that demonization causes in public opinion.

LFI MP Aymeric Caron doesn't believe in the narrative that sees media controversy as fuel: "That would be putting oneself in the position of a citizen with a broad perspective and a keen understanding of how the media works. The reality is that most people don't have the time to take this highly critical view. When television explains every day that we are an anti-Semitic party, some people end up believing it."

Demonized, LFI has become a de facto target. Especially since the attacks have changed in nature. In 2017, Jean-Luc Mélenchon could be repainted as a dangerous ersatz of Robespierre-Lenin by Le Figaro because of his economic and fiscal program. Eight years later, LFI is accused of "collaborating" with "enemies of the nation," Islamists at the forefront. A boulevard for the radical far right, first and foremost. But also for any passerby who has been convinced that the rebels do, in fact, constitute a threat to the country.

Aymeric Caron was stopped in the street on May 12 by a pensioner who said he "wanted to kill him for fun." The exchange was filmed. "In 2024, people attacked me and accused me of supporting Hamas, which is false ," the Parisian elected official continued. "They were unable to explain exactly what I had said, but they had heard it on CNews. Demonization also relies on defamation and lies."

There are plenty of examples. MP Louis Boyard said he had to move in 2023 after his address was disclosed by far-right activists. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's house in Loiret was targeted . Thomas Portes received photos of firearms for several days, accompanied by a countdown supposedly leading to the day of his assassination. The president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot, herself targeted, expressed concern in 2024: "We cannot continue to let the media broadcast hate speech against us without repercussions. Our activists, our elected officials, live in fear."

In fact, these regular threats are part of the movement's life and influence the relationship that activists have with it. For many, LFI is a citadel besieged by the far right, by hostile media, and by a section of the left that would like to challenge its leadership – these antagonisms are sometimes lumped together.

Contacted, several of them testified to L'Humanité that the publication of La Meute was seen as proof of "a new attack against LFI" or, on a lighter note, that "it has become a joke that makes (them) laugh" through which the rebellious movement is consolidated. "This atmosphere also attracts a lot of support from citizens, and there is solidarity within the group," Antoine Léaument agrees .

Demonization, a necessary evil for those who want to embody a true left of rupture? Or even an electoral boon? "It's true that it helps to unite the activist base and that it has an impact on a portion of the anti-establishment electorate," Jean-Yves Dormagen, political scientist and president of the Cluster17 polling institute, tells us. "But with his strategy, Mélenchon is introducing divisive logic within the progressive electorate: on Palestine, on his relationship with social democracy, or on internal democracy. The distance has grown between the rebels and a portion of the social-democratic electorate, which is relaunching a socialist space and reducing their electoral potential."

Assuming that the permanent divide and the demonization suffered in return weld together an electorate that allows him to qualify in the first round, the rebellious candidate will always have to unite in the second. But what will happen if he finds himself facing a perfectly normalized RN candidate? "It is to the central bloc that the question will have to be asked ," Antoine Léaument evades. "Does he prefer Mélenchon or Le Pen or Bardella? In the event of such a head-on clash, many will prefer the Republic to a party founded by the Waffen SS ."

The fact remains that the controversies leave their mark. And they also distance the rebels from their partners in the New Popular Front . For the Green MP Danielle Simonnet, who was part of LFI until her brutal exclusion in the summer of 2024, the strategy of demonization is even "intentional" : "LFI and especially Mélenchon do not want a debate on the next presidential election: joint and united candidacy or rebel candidacy? Therefore, demonization allows them to avoid the debate."

In fact, the more the rebels reek of sulfur, the easier it is for the rest of the left to declare them "unapproachable." The socialists and communists have already distanced themselves. Fabien Roussel now refers to LFI as "a sect under the influence of the couple" Mélenchon-Chikirou. The ecologists are moderating, sparing LFI, less so its founder. Perhaps the controversies provide electoral fuel. More surely, they contribute to the acid that is eating away at the unity of the left.